Unofficial news about chess in Dunfermline and the happenings in the Central League!

Monday, 25 March 2019

Dunfermline v Cumbernauld A played at Dunfermline, 18 Mar 19

Calum Smith (c) 1612 1-0 Ralph Stirrat 1788

Douglas Rew 1452 1-0 Derek McAteer (c) 1429

Gonzalo Forero 1434 1-0 John Pearson 1495

Gordon Grieg 1396 1-0 George Ford 697

Mark McLintock 1201 1-0 - default -

Dunfermline 5-0 Cumbernauld A

Cumbernauld had white on boards 1, 4 and 5

The days start to feel a little longer as
we go through March. One gets a sense that there is more
time to accomplish things. Certainly, we found ourselves with the luxury
of spare time yesterday as every match was finished by half eight.

First to finish was the top board. Ralph had seen my
combination ending in me getting two pawns for a piece but overlooked
that I was attacking his Ra1 as well as the c4 knight. We had a look at
the game afterwards and found that Ralph need not follow
the combination all the way through, he could pin/ win my bishop
instead. We both agreed that I would have resigned. I had a look on the
computer just now and I can wriggle... it goes back to two pawns for a
piece. Not great, but salvageable. Hindsight, eh?

Board 2 was the last to finish. Derek dropped a knight/ rook exchange, put up a good defence, but ultimately succumbed.

To board 3, and a Queen's Gambit Declined, Tarrasch Defence.
Black soon got tied up a bit, white having a lot of centralised
activity. The tactics came from this strong position, as they often do.

On board 4, Cumbernauld's George embarked on a series of
exchanges only to see the "Bxh2+ leaving the queen en prise" motif when
he was a knight down. Gordon then had significant pressure down the
c-file, now two pieces to the good.

Thank you to Cumbernauld for coming through, some interesting, pacey games.